The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-10-05
GOD IN HISTORY.
BY GASKELL.
ARTICLE II


When Moses was upon the earth.
some fifteen centuries before the Chris
tan era, the form of human govern
ment was either pstriarchal or despotic.
Such government is capable of being
both the best and the worst that could
be instituted among men. There was,
in that day, no halfway resting place
between family organization and des-
potic tyranny. There were no constitu-
tional safe guards to protect the people
IN their rights, no amelioration OF pun
ishmeBt, no graded rule of right IN re-
| ward or misunderstanding but the
will of one man, at times ignorant,
brutal, bloodthirsty and sensual, who
obeyed no law but that of his own will.
Despotism is but the natural downward
progress of the family, the extending of
the patriarchal authority, without its
love and fatherly oversight, from the
family to the nation. The right was
claimed as a divine institution and
power, even of life and death, was exer-
cised by both systems of government;
only the field of its operations in the
case of the nation was extended from
the comparatively few numbers and in
innate relationships of family to the
| innumerable variations and complex
ties of nation. As the knowledge of
man increased regarding the nature and
geographical formation of the earth,
and they became more intimate with
the different tribes, peoples, civilizations
and creeds that lived and were upon its
surface, they were led more and more to
seek for light and information. 1t is a
| characteristic OF light that it seeks light
of intelligence that it seeks increase
The mind once led to investigate and
compare, speedily puts doubt to fight,
and wherever the way is open for re-
search, searchers will be found and
pupils will seek masters. And the
different phases and characteristics of
mankind have ever been a prolific
source Of study to which many of the
noblest minds o! past ages have been
devoted. Though we cannot trace back
the stream of time in regular sequence
to the time when people were univer-
sally, as nations, barbarous, yet, from
the known growth and recorded pro-
gress of some of them, we can under
stand 10 certain extent their previous
development.
We find it is only when time and
wealth are possessed by people that
art and science flourish at its best. AS
time and wealth are gained possession
of, and people are advanced beyond the
necessity of daily toll for bread, men of
investigating and inquiring minds are
no longer satisfied with the narrow,
confined sphere of their own daily home
surroundings. and they seek to lead out
therefrom to other scenes and other
labors. AS they become aware of a
world beyond their own, of pleasures,
joys, duties, labors, powers, and intel
LICENCES of which they before knew little
or nothing, but knowledge of which
might possibly be within their reach,
and prove of benefit and infinite solace
to them; then they became more and
more Venturous, nor were they always
content to follow the line of duty as
marked out by the comparatively slow
declarations of reason. TO impress in
delibly upon the mind and to acceler-
ate the development, men were led to
classify and compare facts and princi
pies, and many times they were, if
truthful and honest, compelled to pass
inchoate, homogeneous beliefs. Perse-
verance is one of the most beneficial
characteristics of mans nature, and in
its higher acceptation is always an out
growth or development of intellect. 1t
makes i'll success bearable and even de-
feat has its advantages, aids in the de-
Yelopment of perseverance, and causes
trial after trial to be made until the aim
sought for, or the object derived, is
gained.
The heavens have always been an OBJ
ject Of observation, study, and wonder
to man. The refulgent stars and cir
cling planets, bright and enduring, mov-
ing in ceaseleSS grandeur and unvary..
ing order through the intensity of
space, gave man feeble, yet approx |
mate, idea of the magnitude of the uni
verse. That idea of magnitude and i'm
gradually led the mind onward |
in thought to the nobler and grander |
one of the ilGmitabIe dominion and |
power of the Creator |
and OF the plurality of worlds. The |
higher the civilization, the greater the
intellectual activity of a people, the
grander and more liberal become their
ideas OF divinity and the clearer their
conception of God. While mankind
were struggling WIN Inc 1ntelleClual
darkness that preceded spiritual knowl-
edge, they clothed their ideas in physi-
cal forms, as gods and goddesses, and
often times the still viler objects of
stocks and stones; yet, under all this
obscurity and superstition and ignor-
ance, there was something yet beyond
that they sought for-something they
could neither clothe in physical form
nor in words. Their language grew
with their wants, and their vocabulary
was at first butilly calculated to express
abstract ideas of being or of space. A
and cruel people have always
oarbarous and cruel laws and super
'titious principles embodied IN their
religious hierarchy; hence the contin-
lal struggle represented as going on in
I'll religions, between good and evil,
ight and darkness HThe greater q nen.